


What It Was

by daroh



Category: Merlin (TV) RPF
Genre: Ambiguous/Open Ending, Angst, M/M, Past Relationship(s), brolin - Freeform, only angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-12-06
Updated: 2017-12-06
Packaged: 2019-02-11 10:19:42
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 384
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12933192
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/daroh/pseuds/daroh
Summary: "I can't believe you said you think we've been on the same journey as them," Colin said.





	What It Was

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much to [mssdare](https://archiveofourown.org/users/mssdare/pseuds/mssdare) and [Skitz_phenom](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Skitz_phenom/pseuds/Skitz_phenom) for the betaing!! <3

"I can't believe you said you think we've been on the same journey as them," Colin said, referring to one of the more stressful interviews he and Bradley had given that day.

"I know. But I do feel that we were maybe... _fated_ , like them."

"You're a dork."

"I'm being serious."

"I know," Colin said more quietly. "I'm not sending you off in a boat though, so don't get any grand ideas.”

"No, but a plane..."

America. They hadn't discussed that he was going at all.

They never talked about any of the little betrayals they’d been committing against each other since they’d put an end to whatever it was—being together, being _everything_ together—ten months before. They never talked about Bradley trying to make amends with Georgia, and deciding he’d move to LA once the show was over; or about Colin snogging Alex, of all people, (to "help him with a role," they said,) and flaunting his hookups with that bloke on the crew that Bradley always worried Colin fancied; or about all the minor cruelties they let slip into conversations, in looks exchanged.

But those lashes, painful as they were, had been spaced out and seldom. Well beyond everything, there was the almost bottomless depth of understanding between them, one they could never put in words. They _were_ like Merlin and Arthur, which was what Bradley was trying to say. It was the closest they could get to articulating what this had been, what it might've been.

What it was.

Colin's eyes moved around the room in sluggish avoidance. He couldn't face Bradley, couldn't actually talk about this. The wounds were already there, the plane ticket purchased. Bradley had been bold in saying it—he always was the courageous one—but why only now, when it was too late? "Yeah," was all Colin answered, despite the pain and fear and love swirling in his heart.

Bradley sighed. He picked awkwardly at the knee of his jeans until the tension between them grew too thick, its pointlessness apparent. He got up and walked away in search of a trivial conversation to join at the bar.

Colin winced, then took a too-large gulp of his whiskey, meant for sipping, but good for the burn in his throat as he swallowed it all down.  


End file.
